Gender and Crime

State Prostitution Diversion Programs

Associate Professor of Sociology And Criminal Justice, University of Delaware

Key Findings

At all three sites, Baltimore, Philadelphia and “Peterson County,” participants reported feeling burdened by the supervision the programs required (e.g. multiple drug tests that were inconvenient).

At the Peterson County site, participants noted that services needed to be in more convenient locations.

At all three sites in the study, the participants and program officers noted structural issues in the programs that don’t support ending prostitution.

Description

In the article, “JUSTifying Scrutiny: State Power in Prostitution Diversion Programs,” Leon and her co-author examine prostitution diversion programs to see how they work and how participants experience them. To conduct their study, the researchers collected qualitative interview, focus group, and observation data from three prostitution diversion programs in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and “Peterson County,” a false location used to protect the participants identities. In total the researchers worked with more than 100 participants. Questions ranged from the reasons why people engage in prostitution to what factors in diversion programs made them change. The results showed that participants from all three sites felt burdened by the supervision the programs required (e.g. multiple drug tests that were inconvenient). At the Peterson County site, participants noted that services needed to be in more convenient locations. At all sites, the participants and program officers noted structural issues in the programs that do not support ending prostitution. The authors note that the best way to get prostitute women off the street is listening to their accounts and making programs easier for them.